Sweet Potato Homestead

backyard medicinal herbs

Watching our property transform in the summer has been a lesson in identifying plants. While recognizing common plants like clovers, dandelions and oaks, ones I’ve only planned to grow have popped up and are thriving. In addition to using the absurd amount of gardening and herbalism books I own, I’ve been using an app called Seek to fill in the blanks. And it’s been so fun! I’m not affiliated with them but running around the yard playing a plant version of Pokemon Go has been a great way to spend the summer.

Here’s what I’ve found so far!

St John’s Wort

some of the only flowers in the garden for the bees

Yarrow

Pineapple Weed

Wild Blueberries!

On top of these I’ve also found

wild raspberries
goldenrod
mallow
mullein
and so many wild flowers

Some of these I’ve found on our walks with the dogs and have been diligently adding them to my Seek library. I love being able to identify them since I spent all winter pouring over my plant spreadsheets planning my medicinal and culinary gardens. Being able to transplant these babies into more intentional spots is a great way to maintain local diversity and knowing that they’ll survive a Maine winter is a plus.

🍃 herb drying 🍃

The side deck where all of my garden is this year has been doing surprisingly well despite the heavy winds we’re prone to get. My herbs especially have been growing like weeds and were in desperate need of a haircut.

before harvest the parsley and sage were out of control~

cut and washed; L to R top row: chives and sage & L to R bottom row: parsley and oregano

After cutting the biggest growths and stuff that was probably destined to go to seed, the herbs were ready for a rinse. While I don’t have a beautiful tiered wood frame herb dryer, my dehydrator works wonders.

sage leaves big and small being arranged on a drying rack

I also harvested some kale with my herbs and dried those along side the rest to use in soups and stews in the colder months. Once meticulously arranged and definitely overcrowded towards the end, I closed the lid on the dehydrator to get the process started. I dried everything at 110F for roughly 14hrs and my overcrowding didn’t result in uneven drying.

After drying I rough chopped bigger leaves and bottled them up for my spice rack. I’m so happy with how they turned out and I can’t wait to make yummy spice blends for winter.

container garden update

The ~official~ first day of summer is today despite being a relatively cool day and, while it’s v weird to me that I need to keep a sweatshirt or socks handy, the garden trucking along.

big happy chard leaves mixed in with a mystery squash + tomatoes with a non-flowering calendula plant underneath

I’m not sure how plentiful my yields will be in the fall due to being a bit late to start seeds, being ill-prepared with having pots and dirt at the ready, and just being in Maine for the first summer. For now, everything but the rosemary seems to be thriving. Which is honestly no surprise because even though the spot I planted it gets plenty of sun, it up and died. Or is at least 99% dead. I don’t know how a zone 4-5 hardy rosemary hasn’t been GMO-ed into existence yet but I may have to be the one to do it since we loveee rosemary in this house~

While we’ve had some recent nights in the low to mid 40s, my hot peppers seem to be pushing through it. They are planted a bit crowded this year as I had to get creative with the dirt and pots I had on hand so I’m expecting a very low yield this summer. The kale and herbs are thriving as well and will need to be harvested soon so I can get some dried blends going for the winter.

Because I marked next to nothing this year, either my zucchini or butternut squash is doing great, giving off perfect golden flowers between chard and potato leaves. My fingers are crossed for butternut as they feel like a more versatile squash to cook opposed to zoodles or breads.

Lastly, my Amish Paste tomatoes are getting taller and taller by the week and I’ll probably need to start giving them some extra support before the month is over.